What causes "Failed to create insight - no ID in result" in lfnovo/open-notebook?

Inspect the actual insert result shape in worker logs / by reproducing the insert in SurrealDB

lfnovo/open-notebook · error · ValueError

Failed to create insight - no ID in result

Error message

Failed to create insight - no ID in result

What it means

ValueError raised by create_insight_command when the insert result row exists but has no (or empty) 'id' field, so the command cannot obtain the new insight's ID to submit the follow-up embed_insight job. The str() conversion means even a missing key becomes '' and fails the check.

Source

Thrown at commands/embedding_commands.py:456

            CREATE source_insight CONTENT {
                "source": $source_id,
                "insight_type": $insight_type,
                "content": $content
            };
            """,
            {
                "source_id": ensure_record_id(input_data.source_id),
                "insight_type": input_data.insight_type,
                "content": input_data.content,
            },
        )

        if not result or len(result) == 0:
            raise ValueError("Failed to create insight - no result returned")

        insight_id = str(result[0].get("id", ""))
        if not insight_id:
            raise ValueError("Failed to create insight - no ID in result")

        # 2. Submit embedding command (fire-and-forget)
        submit_command(
            "open_notebook",
            "embed_insight",
            {"insight_id": insight_id},
        )
        logger.debug(f"Submitted embed_insight command for {insight_id}")

        processing_time = time.time() - start_time
        logger.info(
            f"Successfully created insight {insight_id} for source "
            f"{input_data.source_id} in {processing_time:.2f}s"
        )

        return CreateInsightOutput(
            success=True,
            insight_id=insight_id,

View on GitHub (pinned to a7de90d38a)

Solutions

Inspect the actual insert result shape in worker logs / by reproducing the insert in SurrealDB
Pin or align the SurrealDB and surrealdb-driver versions with this project's requirements
Ensure the insert query's RETURN clause includes the full record (with id)

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Try / catch

result = await run_command('create_insight', payload)
out = result.output
if out.get('success'):
    insight_id = out['result']['insight_id']
else:
    insight_id = await fallback_create_insight_via_api(payload)  # e.g. POST /insights REST route

Prevention

Pin SurrealDB and driver versions to those this release tested against
Fall back to the REST insight-creation endpoint when the command path fails
Report result-shape regressions with the actual returned dict for diagnosis

When it happens

Trigger: SurrealDB returning a result object whose 'id' key is absent or null — e.g. a projection/RETURN clause that omits id, or a driver deserialization difference that nests the id elsewhere.

Common situations: SurrealDB or driver version changes altering the returned record shape; a repo_insert query modified to return projected fields without id.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of lfnovo/open-notebook@a7de90d38a (2026-08-27). Data as JSON: /api/errors/37bb758d19308e61. Report an issue: GitHub.